A Second Chance (22 page)

She blew out a breath. “I guess it
can’t hurt to ask.”

“
Thanks, Mom.”

“
Sure.” She turned to walk
away. “You know, he does have a new build not too far from school.
And I’m sure John Forrester is overseeing it in some way. Your dad
used to work for him.”

“
I remember John,
sure.”

“
Maybe you could work on
site too. That would give you some hands-on.”

“
Wow, that would be really
cool.”

“
Should I field this for
you? Do you want me to talk to Aunt Regan first?”

He smiled his big toothy grin. “How
did you know?”

“
I’ve been around you a long
time.”

“
Thanks, Mom. By the way,
you look really good today.”

“
I have on my red hair.” She
gave the wig a little flip with her hand.

“
I like the red
hair.”

“
So do I,” she said. “Oh,
and I wanted to tell you I’m taking a vacation in a couple of
weeks. I’m going to Mexico. I’m going to ask Auntie Arianna to stay
with you.”

“
Okay.” He shrugged. “Why
can’t we just stay with Dad?”

“
Well.” She tried to keep
her voice upbeat. “I decided to go while they were on their
honeymoon. It’s not too thought out, but my boss gave me time and I
thought I should do it while I could.”

“
Sounds great, Mom. You
deserve a vacation in a swimsuit.”

“
Dear, God! I hadn’t thought
about a swimsuit.”

His shoulders bounced as he laughed at
her, and his eyes grew bright. “You’re going to Mexico and you
didn’t think about that?”

“
No. I just wanted to get
away for a bit. Well…” She blew out a breath. “I guess I’ll be
thinking about it now.” She looked down at her chest and placed her
hands on her breasts. “Damn glad I have these.”

“
Mom!” Eduardo turned and
covered his eyes, forcing her to laugh.

As soon as she left his bedroom, she
went right to hers and picked up the phone. First, she’d call
Arianna and see if she could fill in while she was gone.

“
You’re going to Mexico
without me?” Though she was trying to sound put out, she didn’t
have Madeline convinced.

“
Now is just the time for me
to go.”

“
Okay, okay.” She laughed.
“We’ll plan a weekend though. Don’t you think we should all get
away? You, me, and Regan. Just like old times.”

Just like old times.
It used to be sisters. They were all sisters.
They’d known each other since high school, and every year they
would spend a weekend away, just the three of them. Then after she
divorced their brother, they took off for a few years. Especially
when Regan was in Hawaii and Arianna had moved to New York. But
eventually, one thing had lead to another, and they’d had three
more weekends. Even Matt had thought it was good for them to get
away together.

She felt it coming and she knew she
had to ask. “What about Kathy?”

“
What about her?”

“
Well don’t you think we
should include her? Or you should take her, is what I guess I
really mean,” which it was.

“
I had never given it any
thought,” Arianna said, her words drawn out. “Wow, that makes me a
bad sister-in-law, doesn’t it?”

“
Well, no…”

“
Yes, it does. Dear God!
Here we are helping her plan this wedding and making sure her dress
is right, she has the right accessories, and dancers for her
bachelorette party, and I don’t even think to include her in
sisters’ weekends.”

“
It always takes getting
used to,” Madeline added, trying to move the subject along, sadness
swelling in her chest at the thought of the years she’d lost with
her dear friends.

“
No, it doesn’t. I never had
to get used to you,” she said and then laughed. “I mean, you were
always around.”

They’d all grown up together, in a
sense. That busy time in life when Arianna was seventeen and
Madeline, Carlos, and Regan were fifteen, they’d all been a unit.
She was their sister and the love of Carlos’s life. They had all
been used to each other, and even ending her marriage to their
brother hadn’t stopped their relationship.

“
Well, I won’t feel put out
when you all jaunt off to Mexico for a vacation.”

“
Oh, Maddie, shut up!” She
erupted in laughter on the end of the phone. “You know you’ve
always been one of my best friends, and Regan’s too for that
matter. Just because Carlos was too stupid to hold on to you
doesn’t mean I have to let you go.”

Madeline smiled one of those smiles
that make your cheeks hurt. “Thank you. From the bottom of my
heart, thank you.”

“
Anyway, you need me to stay
with the kids?”

“
Yeah. Carlos and Kathy will
be on their honeymoon. It just worked out that way.”

“
Sure it did,” she said, not
quite under her breath. “I’d love to stay. Can I just stay out at
your house?”

“
Yes, that would be
perfect.”

She had her tickets, her hotel room,
and a babysitter. All she needed to do now was try and get her son
a job. She shook her head as she dialed Regan’s number. Who would
have thought the time would come she’d be helping her son move into
his adult life and pay for dates with girls?

“
I will definitely talk to
Zach about it,” Regan said once Madeline told her about Eduardo’s
plan. “Have him call him tomorrow about two thirty. That’s when
he’s the least busy.”

“
I guess you would know
best. You were his favorite assistant,” Madeline teased.

“
Yes, but I got
fired.”

“
But in the end I do think
you got the best job of all.”

“
You couldn’t be more right.
So… are you coming to the wedding?”

Madeline let out a sigh. “That’s
another reason I’m calling. I need to borrow a
swimsuit.”

“
You’re coming to the
wedding in a swimsuit?”

“
No, no, no.” She laughed
again. God, she loved Carlos’s sisters. “I’m not going to the
wedding. I’m going to Mexico. Arianna is going to watch the kids
while I’m away.”

“
Why? He’s looking forward
to having you there.”

“
And I’m flattered, but
Regan, between you and me, I can’t watch him do this. It’s already
breaking my heart.”

“
I knew that,” she said
softly. “What timing, eh?”

“
Yeah, what timing.” She
took another deep breath. “So I’m a coward with a boss who gave me
extra vacation time, even after having been on leave. I’m taking
it. So what do you say? Do you have something sexy I could wear to
show off my nipple-less breasts?”

She was glad she’d called her
sisters-in-law. She felt better than she’d felt in
months.

Now, all she needed to do was get out
of town before Carlos said I do, and she’d spend the next week
sipping margaritas on a beach and not have to think about the
wedding at all.

Chapter Ten

Madeline’s phone rang at ten o’clock
at night. She reached across the bed to the end table to pick it
up. When she looked at the caller ID and saw Carlos’s number, a
surge of panic raced through her, but it quickly diminished when
she realized why he must be calling. She’d expected him to call
earlier in the day. Regan and Arianna were usually much quicker
about spreading gossip.

“
You’re not coming to my
wedding?” Carlos demanded without even responding to her
hello.

Madeline pushed her shoulders back,
ready to stand her ground. “No, Carlos. I’m not.”

“
Why?”

Did he really need an answer to that
question? Hadn’t she been fool enough to tell him she loved him
when they wheeled her into surgery? She sighed. There was her proof
that he either hadn’t heard it… or had heard it but accepted it as
a friendly gesture.

“
My boss gave me vacation
time. After all I’ve been through, I just think this would be a
nice reward for myself.”

“
And you couldn’t have gone
a week later?”

Madeline gripped the phone tighter.
“If you’re upset because I asked your sister to stay with the
kids…”

“
No. That is not why I’m
upset.” He let out a breath. “Maddie, it’s important to me to have
you at the wedding.”

“
Carlos, did it ever occur
to you I don’t want to watch you move on?” She tensed. She hadn’t
wanted to say that to him, but now it was out.

“
You’d rather I be miserable
the rest of my life.”

She slouched down on the bed, her back
resting on the backboard, causing her scars to stretch and become
as uncomfortable as the stirring in her stomach from Carlos’s
disappointment. “Now, I didn’t say that.”

“
It was okay for you to go
get married six months after our marriage ended? It was okay for
you to marry my best friend? But now, five years later, I can’t
marry a perfectly wonderful woman, who adores you by the way, and
be happy?”

Her heart ached as he replayed her
mistakes since they’d divorced. “Carlos, I want you to be
happy.”

“
You just don’t want to be a
part of it?”

Why was he arguing about this with
her? She was his ex-wife. That alone should be reason to not have
to justify why she wasn’t going to attend the wedding.

She didn’t want to tell him that his
taking care of her had put her at such ease, and now he was all she
thought about. She didn’t want to tell him that when she drifted to
sleep each night, she dreamed of him. How could she tell him she
loved him as much at that moment as she had when she was fifteen?
Only when she was fifteen, there was hope. Now there was just
emptiness. She’d never have him again as her husband. She’d walked
away from that, and now Kathy had it. They’d always be parents and
share their family, but he was marrying Kathy—and it broke her
heart.

How was she supposed to tell him that?
Instead, awkward silence took over the phone call.

Carlos let out a deep breath. “I just
wish you’d change your mind. That’s all.”

“
I only want the best for
you, Carlos. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” That much was true.
She’d hoped when they’d committed to each other that nothing could
break them down so badly that one of them would walk away. Now they
both had.

“
I know.” His voice dropped
off. “You’re one of my very best friends. I can’t imagine not
having your blessing on that day.”

“
You have my
blessing.”

“
And I’m thankful for that.”
He let out a weak cough, and she knew it was strained with tears.
“I’ll see you when you drop off the kids.”

“
Okay, oh, did you hear that
Zach has a new intern?”

“
Of course I did. Ed’s
excited and it’ll be good training for him. Maybe it’ll help him
get some scholarships, and if he’s got potential, Zach can let us
know.”

She felt better ending the call on a
lighter note. “Well, I’d better get to bed. I’ll see you in a few
days.”

“
Night, Maddie.”

She lay down across her bed and
fingered the circle of gold that still hung around her neck,
between her new breasts.

“
Let go, Maddie,” she told
herself as she moved Carlos’s ring back and forth on the chain.
“Let go.”

As if Madeline’s phone conversation
the night before with Carlos wasn’t unsettling enough, Matt called
the next day.

He cleared his throat. “I just wanted
to see how you were feeling.”

“
Really? How nice of you to
check in on me five months later. Did you wonder if I was terminal
yet?”

“
Madeline…”

“
Madeline, what? I’m so
sorry that I was an ass to you? That I didn’t stick around and see
you though your ordeal? That I…” She sucked in a breath and then
bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from talking. “Matt, why
did you call?”

“
I wanted to see how you
were.” His voice shook. Her enjoyment of the sound made her feel
small.

“
I’m fine. I’ve done four
months of chemo. I’ve lost twenty pounds. I lost all my hair. For
four months, I didn’t have any breasts, but now I have a nice new
set. They’re incomplete, but look nice under my shirt. And I have a
scar on my stomach where they took the grafting. Other than that,
they got all the cancer during surgery. I’m feeling better. My
eyebrows have grown in fully, and my hair is coming along
nicely.”

There was almost a bubble of
excitement when she rambled it all off to him. She’d been through a
lot in five months. The rest of her life should be a piece of
cake.

“
And you, Matt? How are you
and your new wife?”

“
We’re fine,” he said, and
again his voice shook with nerves. Madeline couldn’t help but feel
a little pleased that he was uncomfortable, just as she’d been when
he told her he’d moved on. “The baby was born last week. A little
baby boy.”